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The Creator’s Dilemma

A fantasy short story

The being called Listener must help his master, the enigmatic deity known as the Creator, decide the fate of a woman’s life. When the Creator confesses his love for the woman, however, Listener realizes the situation is far more complicated than it first seemed.

Backed up against a cliff, with nowhere to run to, Desdar Bandas—a human slave who is only one year away from freedom—must figure out how to save his life and the life of his elvish mistress, Kencha, from a pack of violent, bloodthirsty smoke wolves.

Yet when it turns out that Kencha has stolen from the pack a sacred object of immense value to the smoke wolves, Desdar is forced to choose between his freedom and Kencha’s survival.

After the destruction of his island’s once beautiful civilization and ecosystem, King Igici believes he may have finally discovered the solution to all of his people’s’ problems.

When his solution to these problems appears to fail, however, Igici begins to doubt his own ability to save his people. It does not help that his childhood friend, Gikil, expresses severe skepticism toward his plans to save his nation, thus eroding his already shaky confidence in himself.

For four years, Alica Onok has been trying to get rid of a mysterious enchanted staff that has caused her nothing but trouble since her grandmother gave it to her on her twentieth birthday. Yet it seems like no matter what Alica does, the staff always returns to her, whole and in one piece, as if it had never left her side at all.

Then Alica finds out that an unlucky spirit lives within the staff, a spirit who has been bounded to the staff for years and wants his freedom now. Without knowing any magic herself, however, Alica is powerless to free the spirit, forcing her to come up with an alternative means of doing so. Because if she fails, she will remain cursed with unluckiness forever.

Also contains an excerpt from Timothy L. Cerepaka’s next novel, “The Last Legend: Glitch Apocalypse,” set for release in January 2015 from Annulus Publishing.

When Koromo Samver, leader of the spiritual/social movement known as the World Activists, receives a letter from her old mentor, Mother Dimina, summoning her back to the Mountain Monastery, she answers it without believing much will come of it.

As it turns out, the Mountain Monastery is under attack by Lord Skamva and his Trinity, a group of demons thought to have been banished three hundred years ago. Even worse, a terrible skin disease–one which drives the infected insane and often leads to suicide–has spread throughout the Order of the Monks, infecting almost all of the Monks, including Mother Dimina herself.

And when Koromo herself comes down with the disease, she must race against time to find the cure for the disease and stop the demons before they succeed in destroying the Monastery. Because if she fails to stop the demons, then not only will the Order fall, but the rest of the World as well.

In “The Activist, or the Snake’s Chuckle,” the first and longest story of this fantastic collection, Koromo Samver, leader of the spiritual/social movement known as the World Activists, receives a letter from her old mentor, Mother Dimina, summoning her back to the Mountain Monastery, which she answers it without believing much will come of it.

As it turns out, the Mountain Monastery is under attack by Lord Skamva and his Trinity, a group of demons thought to have been banished three hundred years ago. Even
worse, a terrible skin disease–one which drives the infected insane and often leads to suicide–has spread throughout the Order of the Monks, infecting almost all of the Monks, including Mother Dimina herself.

And when Koromo herself comes down with the disease, she must race against time to find the cure for the disease and stop the demons before they succeed in destroying the Monastery. Because if she fails to stop the demons, then not only will the Order fall, but the rest of the World as well.

In the second story, “The Creator’s Dilemma,” the being called Listener must help his master, the engimatic deity known as the Creator, decide the fate of a woman’s life. When the Creator confesses his love for the woman, however, Listener realizes the situation is far more complicated than it first seemed.

The third story, “The Most Beautiful Island in the World,” features Igici, the King of the Island of Niji, as he works tirelessly to save his people. But after one too many failed schemes on Igici’s part, his friend Gikil is no longer sure she wants to support him.

In the fourth tale, “Not Malicious. Jusy Unlucky,” Alica Onok finds herself alone with the strangest toy fox terrier she has ever met. He claims to be an unlucky spirit named Ginor, but can Alica trust him? And just where did he come from, anyway?

And finally, the collection concludes with the fifth and final story, “The Gift of Valgink.” In this tale, the human slave Desdar and his elvish mistress Kencha are trapped by a tribe of smoke wolves, who claim that Kencha stole their most precious treasure. Will Desdar and Kencha escape alive or are they destined to be little more than fresh meat for the wolves?